Linguistic project

This is not the place to enter into the debate on the various glottonymes that have been used, and continue to be used, to refer to border speech. In general terms, “portuñol” is typically the name used by the speakers themselves (although there are others, for example “estragaidioma”), while “border variety” or “border speech” are the terms used by many linguists, including myself. The discussion around what is and what to call speech on the border is long (and very academic). Without wishing to offend or exclude any positions here, that discussion will be left to one side, although you are invited to use the email in the “contact” section if you wish to receive more information here, in addition to multiple bibliographic references that refer to the discussion.

All corpus work, especially when it is done “on the other side of the pond”, requires a strong support network in order to be carried out successfully. In the case of CLARU, the network began to take shape at the beginning of 2020 with the arrival of the pandemic. I thank the writer Fabián Severo for opening my eyes to Portuñol. Through the reading of his poetry and novels, I not only gained access to the transliteration of this border variety, but also came into contact with the social reality of Artigas. Fabián listened patiently when I explained to him what my intentions were regarding the area, and he suggested that I get in touch with, as he explained, “one of the most important musicians on the border,” Ernesto Díaz. Until then, I had seen Ernesto performing in recitals together with Fabián (on YouTube), but I never suspected that Ernesto would become my working partner and accomplice when it came to recruiting informants and conducting interviews over many hours. Ernesto and I together devised the fieldwork, which we then conducted in Artigas during the months of November and December 2021 under a sometimes very powerful and tiring sun and with low blood pressure that he knew how to alleviate with cucumbers and salt. Thanks to Fabián and Ernesto, I came into contact with a great variety of personalities who have been key to carrying out the fieldwork in Artigas. Below I will mention some of these by name, running the risk of overlooking others and thus being irremediably indebted to those people not mentioned. Many thanks to: Dr. Martín Sánchez and his wife Cristina, for warmly welcoming me on several occasions and for putting me in touch with several “referents” in the area; Juan Guedes, for his hospitality and for so generously providing me with a space to rest and work in Artigas; María Cabezas, for showing me that there are “different ruralities” and for taking me back and forth countless times to several of the rural schools that, without her help, I could hardly have accessed; Johnny de los Santos, for playing the role of “taxi driver-accomplice”; Amadeo Francia, for telling me so many of the secrets of the area of Guayubira and La Estiba and for lending himself on countless occasions to take me back and forth along the red dirt roads in his own car. From the bottom of my heart I thank Ana Rodríguez for her generosity in sharing material with me and putting me in touch with one of the greatest treasures of northern Uruguay. More broadly, I am grateful to all those people who gave me their time, listening to me and supporting me, in both the urban and rural areas of Artigas. I am immensely grateful – and there are really no words to express the gratitude I feel in this regard – to all the informants whose speech makes up the Artiguense corpus: without their help, patience and commitment this work would not exist. I would also like to thank Carla Custodio and Yliana Rodríguez for accompanying my work from Rivera and Montevideo, respectively, and for listening to me at all times. I owe Professor Virginia Bertolotti a very big thank you, not only for the interest she always shows during our talks, but also for the very important and exceptional permission she provided during the pandemic so that I could enter the country. Professor Adolfo Elizaincín was also a key presence through his warm attention during some of the conversations that took place during my stay in Uruguay.

I am infinitely in the debt of Ernesto Díaz (on picture) for the very long hours we spent, both in person and remotely, in commenting on and correcting the audio recordings and the corresponding transcriptions that make up the CLARU corpus. I dare say that without Ernesto this work would have been practically impossible, or of a very different quality.

Merci ‘du fond du coeur’ to Frank Hugi for his infinite patience, for believing in me and for accompanying me along the way.

Of course, none of what has been undertaken and developed here would have been possible without the advice, patience, appreciation and dedication of my thesis supervisors: Professor Johannes Kabatek and Professor Carlota de Benito Moreno, both from the University of Zurich. I always felt fully supported by them, albeit from a distance, and above all I want to say thank you! them for placing so much trust in me. I would also like to thank all my colleagues from the Faculty of Romance Languages at this University. And, equally important, I am grateful to the funds that have supported me: the Graduate Campus (University of Zurich), the Latin American Center Zurich (University of Zurich), the Graduiertenschule (University of Zurich), as well as the Chair of Iberoromanistics (Seminar for Romance Languages, University of Zurich).

Finally, I thank you, dear reader, for your interest, for all possible suggestions, and indeed for the very fact that you have taken the time to browse this page.